"This Situation Report looked at the political situation in Egypt over the last few years with the 8 April 2008 municipal and local council elections as the entry
point. The report reveals that while there have been some positive developments and the Egyptian government has, on occasions, appeared to be willing to improve the situation, many challenges remain and the government should still do more to deal with these challenges. The report began with the municipal elections, enabling the analysis to go beyond the voting process to look at other issues that shape, to a large extent, the importance and effect of elections. In the case of Egypt, this entailed looking also at the general human rights situation, the specific case of press freedom and the socio-economic situation in the country."